In praise of ... Peep Show

From Merseybeat to Britpop, music has glided westward across the Atlantic with ease; British comedy has not always fared so well. Foundering US remakes include the great Fawlty Towers. Its delight in the downright desperate, some said, was too dark for the sunny American psyche. That, however, was always too crass an analysis - US comedy includes the bathos of the Simpsons and the neurosis of Woody Allen as well as the saccharinity of Friends. The triumphant export of The Office - whose take on the slights of everyday life is at moments too painful to watch - finally proved that Americans, too, really do understand the funny side of frustration. Now that the US network Spike TV has commissioned a pilot of Peep Show, the most unforgiving of all British sitcoms could be heading for the States. The Channel 4 show, set to enter its sixth UK series, centres on the dysfunctional friendship of a desperately uncool spod called Mark (David Mitchell) and his flatmate, wannabe musician Jez (Robert Webb), whose ego is all that shields him from his utter lack of talent. Exquisite writing exploits every ounce of potential in their flaws: Mark, for instance, tries to pull girls by describing the battle of Stalingrad. But Peep Shows's great innovation is its novel-like first-person perspective; cameras are strapped on to the heads of actors to reveal their point of view. The effect is to take viewers into their minds, where their insecurities can be seen close up. The effect? Peep Show is both excruciating and excruciatingly funny.

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